A Grim Fall
by QueenoftheWilderwest
Summary: [Altered 3x06]. After being brainwashed by the Grimora, Toothless and Hiccup fall over the edge of the cliff. Toothless escapes from the ocean, safe. Hiccup doesn't.


**For summergirl404, who requested this and gave me the prompt :)**

There was a moment in the air in which Hiccup felt that, for sure, he was going to die. His metal leg slipped on the rocks on top of the cliff and he was slowly but surely advancing towards the depths below. Toothless was going haywire, blue slime dripping from his jaws as the Grimoras took over his brain. One wrong move and Hiccup was going to get a plasma blast to his chest and that would be the end of him.

He could feel the rocks beneath his feet moving, rolling towards the edge of the cliff, and him with it. And he needed to get Toothless to water. All he could do was throw his weight against the dragon and pull them both down together, the two of them tumbling over the edge of the cliff.

* * *

Everyone hears the explosions.

All of the Viking teens stand at the shore, their own dragons safe and back to normal. Then, the screaming happens. Hiccup yells as he shoots towards the ocean, his voice ringing out across the island. The earth shatters as another plasma blast explodes. The screaming stops. Hiccup and Toothless disappear.

Astrid stumbles towards the edge of the sea, her heart pounding in her chest, her hands quivering.

"No…" she whispers.

It feels like the world falls away around her as her legs turn to jelly and she drops to her knees, the waves lapping at her and soaking through her clothes.

Fishlegs joins her at the sea. "Did he… did Toothless hit him?" His voice is hoarse. Barely a whisper.

Behind them, Snotlout begins to curse. He rips off his helmet, tosses it away from him and it clatters against a rock. With a scream, he balls his hand into a fist and punches the rock.

"He's dead. He's gone. No one could survive that," Snotlout says, covering his face and forcefully drying his eyes.

"He's not dead," Astrid snaps. "He'll be out. Any second. You'll see."

Everyone waits in silence. Astrid counts the seconds. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

There's a splash and everyone takes a step forward, all sighing with relief when Toothless emerges from the ocean, all expecting to see Hiccup right behind him.

Hiccup's nowhere to be found.

Fishlegs begins to panic. "What are we supposed to do without Hiccup? How are we supposed to…? We can't… _We can't…_ "

Tuffnut begins to mutter, nonsensical sentences rolling off his tongue. "Maybe he managed to get out, maybe he climbed back up the cliff, you know? Maybe he managed to fly back up, he's got the dragon fly thing, he can make it. Hiccup can make it."

"Yeah," Ruffnut says, joining in. "Hiccup can do anything."

"None of you are helping," Astrid says, her teeth clenched, her hands curling into fists in the sand.

All at once, a memory comes flooding back to her, years before. Smoke and ash drifting in the air. Hiccup's lifeless body in Toothless' claws.

Beside her, Toothless growls, his eyes turning to slits as he digs at the sand with his talons.

"It wasn't your fault," Fishlegs says, a tear rolling down his cheek as his strokes Toothless' snout. "It really, really wasn't your fault."

"He's. Not. Dead!" Astrid shrieks, slamming a fist down into the sand.

No one knows what to say. For once, everyone is silent, even the twins. They do nothing but watch as Astrid stands slowly, turning to rest a hand under Toothless' chin. His eyes open wider as he looks up at her, and they exchange a wordless conversation. Then she nods, determined, and hops onto the saddle on Toothless' back.

"What are you doing?" Snotlout says, taking a step back as Toothless opens his wings.

Astrid spares him a look in between arranging her feet on the pedals controlling the tail wing. "I'm going to get him back."

Then she shoots up into the air.

* * *

Hiccup tries to keep his head above water, but it's no use, his metal leg is too heavy, it's dragging him down.

"Toothless!" he splutters as he manages to tread water, but it's no use.

He can't see him anywhere, no matter which way he turns. And his leg is still pulling him down. His other one is bleeding badly, after hitting rock on the way down.

He can't do this for much longer. He can't keep swimming. He struggles with his leg, unhooking it and letting it sink to seabed, but it's no use. He's fighting a battle to keep moving when all of his senses are telling to give up, and he's losing.

He drifts, letting himself sink.

Above him, a black shadow rises into the air, wings raised, tail waving. Toothless. Then he sees the girl riding the dragon, blonde hair flying behind her, blue eyes twinkling. She's shouting his name.

Astrid.

He smiles.

His last thoughts are of her and his dragon before he slowly drifts off to sleep, and everything turns dark.

* * *

"C'mon, Hiccup, c'mon!" Astrid mutters, trying to shake him awake as well as navigate Toothless back to shore. "Don't leave me, you bastard."

They crash back down onto the beach, Hiccup still in Astrid's arms as she leaps off Toothless, and gently places him down on the ground. Everyone gathers, talking at once.

"Is he dead? He's dead!"

"Someone get Gothi."

"What are we gonna do?"

Astrid tunes them all out as she puts her hands together over his heart and pumps – the way she's seen Gothi do so many times before – and then opens his mouth and breathes.

"C'mon," she repeats through gritted teeth. "C'mon."

She does it again and again and again.

And then –

Hiccup splutters, coughs and spits out water, his eyes fluttering open.

Everyone cheers. The twins high five and clap their hands together. Snotlout and Fishlegs pull each other into a big hug, holding the other close until they realise what they're doing and step away from each other.

Astrid clings on to Hiccup's hand, unable to stop the tears from coming out of sheer relief, her shoulders shaking as she bends her head and relaxes into the ground.

"Were you… kissing me?" Hiccup mumbles.

"For Thor's sake, I thought were dead," she says, delivering a swift punch to his shoulder.

She does kiss him then, leaning close and twisting her fingers in his hair, both their eyes fluttering shut.

Tuffnut wolf-whistles.

Astrid pulls away, covering her face with her hands. "Sorry. Sorry."

"Absolutely no problem at all," Hiccup says, slightly dazed.

She finds herself unable to keep herself from smiling as she pulls Hiccup up into her arms. "Come on," she says, hooking one arm underneath his legs and one around his back. "Let's get you to Gothi."

She pulls him gently up onto Toothless, and together they fly, back over the sea.


End file.
